fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Romney and the Moderates

As you all know, my midterm predictions were truly, incomparably abysmal, but it seems that I was on the right track when I wrote this about the 2012 Republican race: A substantial percentage of Republican primary voters in 2008 overlooked his complete lack of credibility on a range of issues on which he pretended to […]

As you all know, my midterm predictions were truly, incomparably abysmal, but it seems that I was on the right track when I wrote this about the 2012 Republican race:

A substantial percentage of Republican primary voters in 2008 overlooked his complete lack of credibility on a range of issues on which he pretended to be the true conservative candidate, and without McCain in the race sucking up the support of all the moderate primary voters Romney will probably gain their support as well [bold mine-DL]. The voters who regard Romney as too fake and too unprincipled will probably be split several ways by a large field of candidates, and the new Republican rules for awarding delegates will benefit the candidate who is best able to compete in many different kinds of states and who has the resources and organization to have a campaign presence across the country. All of that leaves Romney with a decent chance at the nomination.

It isn’t to the credit of moderate Republicans that they favor Romney so heavily, but Romney has always been the obvious candidate for them for a lack of viable alternatives. What I find intriguing about the extent of moderate Republican support for Romney is that it exists despite Romney’s desperate effort to reject everything he ever did that once made him appealing to moderate Republicans. Perhaps moderate Republicans put their hope in Romney’s later reversion back to what he was in the early 2000s, or perhaps they assume that Romney doesn’t really believe the hard-line rhetoric he’s spouting these days. This puts Romney back in his old position of actively courting the conservative voters who won’t trust him while eagerly repudiating the actual record that moderates admire. The pandering to conservatives hasn’t significantly improved his standing with them after all these years, but strangely it hasn’t caused moderates to abandon him.

There is a long way to go until Iowa, but the nomination is Romney’s to lose. I find that somewhat amusing, since Romney and the GOP clearly deserve one another, and Romney is unlikeable enough that Obama’s chances of re-election get much better with him as the opponent.

Advertisement

Comments

The American Conservative Memberships
Become a Member today for a growing stake in the conservative movement.
Join here!
Join here